Why is the Cost of Cream Cheese so High?

The price of Cream Cheese at Bagel Shops is ridiculously high, but why is this, when Cream Cheese on it's own is not an expensive item to buy.

Everyone is a Bagel lover, particularly in the USA where the Bagel originated.

I want to know why though, every time I go into a Bagel store and order a Bagel, how on earth do they manage to justify charging me an arm and a leg for an often meager smear of cream cheese.

Frankly, I am really "cheesed off" about it!

Just to see the extent of the problem, let's look at two of the biggest Bagel chains in the USA, Einstein Bagels and Dunkin Donuts.

The price of a Bagel here is between 80 cents to just over a dollar if you have it plain, in other words, nothing on it. But as soon as you add a smear of cream cheese, the price sky-rockets to around $2.50!

So how do they justify charging you $1.50 or even more just for a meager scrape of cream cheese on a Bagel?

Being forced to watch my spending budget all the time, I have however found ways to get around this excessive charge to cream cheese, which not only helps to save me money, I am able to get more for less as well.

At the weekends I will often take my daughters to Einstein Bagels for breakfast, something that they both enjoy.

It may sound stingy, but instead of me buying four Bagels with cream cheese already on them, I buy six Bagels and a tub of cream cheese, and then we spread the cream cheese on our own Bagels.

Einstein Bagels usually has a "buy five get one free" deal, and so although we get six Bagels, we have only had to pay for five of them. The assistant still has to cut the Bagels and toast them, and so the only difference is that we have to spread our own, which is not a chore.

Together with some drinks, the price of six Bagels purchased plain works out at approximately $15, and there is always plenty of cream cheese in a tub to spread thickly on all six of our Bagels. If instead of this I was to have purchased only four Bagels and had the assistant spread the cream cheese, the cost would then be $18 or even more.

The other nice thing is that when you spread your own cream cheese on a Bagel, you get the right amount. Sometimes when you buy a Bagel with cream cheese already on it, the cream cheese is either so thickly spread that you have to scrape some off and throw it away, or it's so thinly spread that you are left wondering why you bothered to even ask for cream cheese in the first place. Sometimes it's also just nice to be in control isn't it.

I really just don't understand why these Bagel shops have to charge so much, and furthermore I just don't know how they can continue to get away with ripping off their customers so badly.

Since the need to budget carefully has taught me to be frugal, I actually am quite happy at times to rip a Bagel apart and to eat it on it's own. This is especially good if it is a Cinnamon Raisin or or an Asiago Cheese Bagel, or any Bagel that is just really fresh and soft.

So Bagel lovers, what do you say? Are you too fed up with the price that Bagel shops are charging you for cream cheese?

If so, please forward this to your friends, make your feelings known at your local Bagel shop, and let us see if we can spread this protest across the USA and help bring down the price of cream cheese on our Bagels.

Maybe it's even time to take these protests further, with a protest web site, or maybe a protest page on Facebook. I wonder if we got the Bagel loving Citizens of the United States to band together, if we could force the Bagel shops to stop being heavy handed on the charges for a lightly spread dollop of cream cheese.